Trump Says Hacker Stole More Than 600,000 Arizona Voter Files, DOJ Declined to Prosecute

Trump highlights declassified FBI files showing a 2020 breach of Maricopa County voter records that federal and state prosecutors refused to charge.

First Published: August 8, 2026, 12:12 PM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald J. Trump said a hacker stole more than 600,000 Arizona voter files in 2020, and the Justice Department declined to prosecute.

The files came from Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, and a self-described hacker took 633,000 voter registration records between October 21 and November 2, 2020, according to justthenews. The breach exposed sensitive personal information for 933 voters, including domestic violence victims, judges and law enforcement officers, according to justthenews.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “More than 600,000 voter files ripped off Arizona site in 2020 by hacker, but DOJ didn’t prosecute: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/6amhundreds-thousands-voter-files-were-hacked-arizona-2020-doj-declined” on August 8, 2026 at 3:51 PM ET.

This is Trump’s 5th message released today, and the last post was 2 hours ago, and it is not part of a thread. On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025. The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with 116 of his 449 posts over the last 30 days classified as Elections posts.

Trump pointed readers to the report by mentioning the source (see justthenews), which cites declassified documents made public by the White House Government Transparency Task Force. The FBI identified a suspect at a home in Fountain Hills, Arizona, and the man admitted he wrote a computer script that exploited a security weakness on the county recorder’s website, according to justthenews. The intrusion ranked as the most flagged security incident in a cyberintrusion log that U.S. spy agencies kept around the November 3, 2020 election, according to justthenews.

Prosecutors at multiple levels passed on the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix declined to charge the alleged hacker on July 12, 2021, under the Biden administration, and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and the Pinal County Attorney’s Office also declined, according to justthenews. FBI Director Kash Patel wrote to the task force this week that the bureau spent significant resources on the matter but could not persuade any prosecutor to act, according to justthenews.

“significant resources,” Patel said in the letter describing the bureau’s effort, according to justthenews. The case closed in 2023, the memos show.

The stakes reach beyond one county. Voter registration files do not include ballots, and no evidence shows anyone changed votes in the incident, according to justthenews. The U.S. intelligence community has warned since 2020 that bad actors who obtain such files could hamper the ability of voters to cast ballots in future elections, according to justthenews.

For the average U.S. reader, the disclosure raises a direct question about who guards the personal data states collect to run elections. Registration records can carry addresses, birthdates and protected-status flags, and a breach can expose people who rely on confidentiality for their safety.

This has happened before at a larger scale. China obtained about 220 million voter files, according to documents released last month, according to justthenews. The Maricopa figure of 633,000 records is a fraction of that national exposure, yet it involved a single county’s website during a presidential election.

The next decision rests with the White House Government Transparency Task Force and federal officials weighing whether to revisit the closed case. A date for any further action has not been announced.

Election-data disputes in Maricopa County are not new. The county became a national flashpoint after the 2020 election, when the Arizona Senate ordered a hand recount of 2.1 million ballots that ran from April to September 2021, according to azleg.gov. Outside contractors conducted that review, confirmed Joe Biden’s win in the county and found no reversal of the certified result. The conclusion left the officials who ordered it facing criticism from both sides of the contest.